POULTRY NOTES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 November 1940, Page 9

POULTRY NOTES

STOCK COCKERELS. EARLY SELECTION DESIRABLE. First selection of stock cockerels should be made at eight weeks of age, and the second at sixteen weeks, for unless the culls are eliminated they are no use for the table either, and must be counted a dead loss. There are three main principles of selection: Constitutional vigour, production quality and standard breeding points. The first of these is best judged when the birds are running loose. Good cockerels will range freely and not huddle in a cprner of the house. In a small flock — and stock birds should never be run in large units —it is quite easy to see which individuals are the active, bullying birds and which allow themselves to be browbeaten. These last will never be any use as sires. Judge by Handling. Production and standard breeding qualities are best judged, first, by very careful handling, though some of the most obvious faults can be seen without picking up the birds. The comb should have no side sprigs and the serrations should be even. With singlecomb types, one occasionally gets a. twisted comb, and a cockerel with this fault should never be used as a breeder. The base of the comb should always follow the curve of the skull and not stick out at the back. Eyes are a good guide both to general condition and correct breeding. Birds with split pupils, blind eyes or those sunk deep in the head should be culled. The good breeder will have bright, clear eyes, and only those birds which have correct coloured eyes for their breed should be used. There are three faulty types of tail in male birds; squirrel tails, where the tail curves back towards the cockerel’s neck; wry or crooked tails and down tails, where the feathers slope towards the ground.

Points About Legs. Feathered legs in a non-feathered variety are a fault of breeding quality and a bird with thick, coarse legs should be culled, no matter what breed he is. The legs should be in proportion to the rest of the bird, and not give an impression of legginess when it runs, and they should be properly set on the body, as a suggestion of knock-knees ruins the bird for breeding purposes. Crooked toes ought to be culled at a day old, but if they have been missed the birds should be killed at sixteen weeks. One of the most important qualities of a stock cockerel is breadth of back. At sixteen weeks one should only just be able to span the back of a heavy breed cockerel with the thumb and first finger and by six months the distance should have increased so that the hand at full stretch across the back hardly spans it. The back must also be of good length, and the best way to test this is to run the hand down from neck to tail, folding down the tail feathers, so that one is not deceived by -the appearance of length which the tail feathers give. Body depth is also an important consideration. When the body of the bird is grasped with both hands it ought to be impossible to meet the fingers. The chest depth should be judged when the bird is on the ground. It should show a deep curve from neck to legs. A cut-away bird, on which it appears that a rough diagonal could be drawn from head to legs, is no good. The Parents' Records.

Feather markings should be sufficiently developed by the time the bird is sixteen weeks for accurate judgment.to be made of them, and only those with perfect standard colouring should be kept for breeding. Finally the standard breed quality Of the bird should be checked with its parents’ records. If this is done first it is hard to avoid being prejudiced by the performance of its dam and sire. The pullets from the same parents should also be referred to as an impure factor will sometimes be evident in one sex and nqt in the other. For pedigree breeding, it is wise to check up on brothers as well, for crossbred blood may be in the stock, and show in some birds and not in others.